An Antic Disposition

It always seems to me that a kind of madness takes over the toads during the month of April, as many of us attempt to write 30 poems in 30 days. We get to the fourth week and wonder why we set ourselves such an insurmountable task to begin with.

Since today is the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and death, I have delved into the archives to read up on what he had to say about madness... a favoured theme in several plays and poems. I came across an interesting article, to be found HERE for those who are interested. I have also provided a few memorable quotes, but they are by no means prescriptive.

Laurence Olivier as Hamlet (1948)

Hamlet:

But come—
Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
How strange or odd some'er I bear myself—
As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on—

Hamlet Act 1, scene 5, 168 - 172

Theseus:

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.

Midsummer Night's Dream Act 5, scene 1, 4 - 8

Macbeth:

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?

Macbeth Act 5, scene 3, 40–45


Our focus for this prompt is The Mind: those troubles of the brain, shaping fantasies and antic dispositions which make us human.